Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the deputy minister to elaborate on the Aboriginal Affairs position on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that the Minister spoke to the reason why most of the regions are located in Yellowknife and it has to do with the way the job is accomplished. We do not just go into a region and negotiate, and have the rest of the time off until the next negotiation session. Most of the work in between sessions is preparing for the next session, and to do that they have to work with our departments.

We have to review positions that are tabled by one or both of the other parties, and we have to ensure that our departments agree with a position. We have to develop a response. Most of the work is here in Yellowknife. We also want to ensure that our negotiators know what is happening at other tables. We are a very close-knit unit, and we are all located on one floor. It is best for our operation if we are all located here. It simply would not be workable to have our staff located in the region. We would have to be bringing them back into Yellowknife so often. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am told that there is very low turnover. There is one assistant negotiator from Fort McPherson for whom the job did not turn out the way he thought it was going to turn out, so he left on his own accord. The other negotiator was hired by one of the Ministers and became an executive assistant. That is the extent of the turnovers that I am aware of.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along the lines of some of the previous speakers, concerning the extra position that the Minister has indicated that they need. I was in Calgary with the Dogrib negotiations, and I looked at the people around the table. When I counted the people, we had 11 Government of the Northwest Territories negotiators around the table, four Dogrib negotiators and five federal negotiators. We had three from each department representing us.

We have that many positions out there already doing the work for us, and here we are trying to create a few more. I am just wondering if we could use the same negotiators that we have around the table that are working in the departments, instead of it costing us more. We should try to use other resources that we have. For instance, when I was getting a briefing there, after the meeting, they were in the process of changing their lawyer for the fifth time. Now, that is slowing them down in the negotiations, because the new lawyer has to be briefed and trained as to what he is supposed to be doing there.

Like some of the others have mentioned, the Government of the Northwest Territories is the one that is slowing things down. I would not say that they are intentionally doing it. It is just the process that they are using is not efficient enough. The Ministers are not being made aware of some of the issues that are out there. We should cut out the middle people and put the Ministers there. Because this is a final agreement in my region, it really is time the Ministers took the time to get out there and go to some of the negotiations.

We have talked for the last two or three months about working with the aboriginal leaders. It was an issue in the briefing on some of the things we are doing. By saying that we want to work with them, we should go out there and show them that we really mean it. And by doing that, we can try to make some progress by making the decisions right at the table, instead of all of the negotiating going back and forth between Yellowknife and Ottawa. I know our negotiators do not have to call back to their chiefs or anything like that, because they are already briefed before they even come to the table. They know what they are looking for.

What I am saying here is by creating more positions, I do not see that we are going in the right path. I think we should use the people that are already there who already have the knowledge of negotiating. By working more closely, like some of the previous speakers said, getting to the origins and having people working close to the negotiating teams, I think that will speed up most of the negotiations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak to the interim appropriation in regards to Aboriginal Affairs requesting additional negotiators and assistant negotiators. This is seeking additional negotiators for two of the claims that are going to be starting up. Yes, we agreed to work with all of the aboriginal groups and we want to be ready for the Akaitcho Territory once their framework agreement is finalized, and the Deh Cho First Nations once they have concluded their framework agreement.

We have to be ready for them, once they get into a position to negotiate. As soon as we do the Dogrib negotiations, because they were ready with their final agreement and have been negotiating for about four years, I know that they are going through a final agreement. We have met with negotiators, and the Dogribs have suggested that we find a way of perhaps speeding up some of the process. We have agreed that as the Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, I am available for our chief negotiator, who is Patrick Scott, to get in touch with me and inform me any time of the issues that have arisen at the table.

We have talked about it and asked for the negotiations at the table. The nature of negotiations is sometimes we, as the Government of the Northwest Territories and especially from the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, we normally send a chief negotiator and an assistant negotiator, and sometimes a policy analyst to go to the negotiating table.

If the subject matters discussed are dealing with legal issues, we have a lawyer from the Justice Department who is assigned to that file. You mentioned the fifth lawyer. Lawyers from the department, they come and they go. If they decide to leave, there is nothing we can do about asking them to stay. We have to get another lawyer in place.

Unfortunately, this is not efficient. We would like to have a dedicated lawyer that starts from the beginning and works to the end, but we have to use the Department of Justice lawyers to give us that legal advice. And then we have representatives from the different departments. I do not know who is down in Calgary from the other departments, but sometimes the nature of the department is that if the subject matter affects any of our departments, we make sure there are representatives from the different departments that go to these different negotiation sessions. Perhaps that is why there are the 11, I believe the Member mentioned, that represent the Government of the Northwest Territories at the session that he attended.

If the issues are federal matters and do not concern us, we just send one, two or three people. It all depends on the nature and the items that are discussed. I agree the Dogribs are into their final agreement. They are going to be going hard for ten days at a time, two weeks at a time. I am going to be available whenever the sessions are. I am being briefed by the negotiators and if need be, I will be a standby. I may even be able to attend some of the sessions. That is my plan for the next while, while we finalize the Dogrib final agreement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just going along under the resources area, when the final agreement is approved, hopefully in August, we will have a group of people that will no longer be putting their full attention on the Dogrib land claims.

We will have some people freed up that can go to other claims. I am just thinking of the extra position you are trying to create. I know maybe the negotiators that are there now can take the whole workload for the next four months until the claim is done and then they can turn their attention to the other claims.

Once the claim is done and the final agreement is done, there is a model there that can be used for other claim and claimant groups and for the Government of the Northwest Territories. Maybe it is just a matter of a few words here and there being changed. The workload would be less for future negotiators we will have for the team of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

If we know we all want the claims to go ahead and if our people could just maybe carry the workload a few more months, we will have a lot of resources freed up to put our attention in different areas. Thank you.

Thank you. The honourable Member mentioned the final agreement will be concluded by August. It is unknown. There is no guarantee the final agreement will be done by August.

I talked to one of the negotiators, Ted Blondin, recently and we are not anticipating any problems. However, you have to be flexible. I would not put that kind of a timeline on it. It may even be in the fall. What do we do if the Akaitcho Territory is ready to go and we tell them you have to wait until the Dogrib claim is finished before we move ahead?

That is when we are really going to be accused of dragging our heels and dragging this thing out. I know the honourable Member's intentions are good. However, it would be very difficult to take that position. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to try and get efficiency, to streamline and look at the different government initiatives that are similar, especially to address the aboriginal relationship issue, there are different fronts there. We, as a government, know this territory with Aboriginal Affairs. We are specifically involved in land claims and self-government negotiations and the implementation of it, especially the land claims that have been signed. We do that function as Aboriginal Affairs.

There are other initiatives. For example, the continuing dialogue with different aboriginal governments. As the Government of the Northwest Territories to the different aboriginal governments, it is outside the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. There is the intergovernmental forum. That is there. That is outside the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. However, it is more of a government to government type of arrangement. As a result, it is with the Executive because of the intergovernmental nature of the relationship.

That forum is a very important process we are working towards. Hopefully it happens in the next two or three months.

There is in the area of community regional development, which is within the Executive, a need, from my view on that and how it relates to Aboriginal Affairs. It is at the community level in the different regions where land claims and self-government arrangements are being negotiated. Once these are concluded, there is going to be a new relationship out there between the municipal governments and the aboriginal governments. We need to start focusing on it and seeing how this is going to be handled in the future.

There is a need for that. I think basically the community-regional sectors for better communications between our different departments at the regional level and in the communities.

There is the relationship with the aboriginal and community governments that are out in the communities as well. To amalgamate it into one, we really have to take a good close look at how that could be done. We probably have to do some sort of a functional type of review in order to do that. Thank you.

Thank you. I take the honourable Member's advice, more or less saying to keep my eyes open to seek out whatever efficiencies we could find as we go along in this process. Thank you.